As it happened: Cong claims victory in Uttarakhand trust vote

The crucial floor test to ascertain whether sacked chief minister Harish Rawat has the majority in the Uttarakhand Assembly concluded on Tuesday morning following Supreme Court directions with nine disqualified Congress MLAs being kept out of it. Earlier in the day, BSP chief Mayawati extended support to the Congress in a big boost to Rawat. Uttarakhand crisis

The crucial floor test to ascertain whether sacked chief minister Harish Rawat has the majority in the Uttarakhand Assembly concluded on Tuesday morning following Supreme Court directions with nine disqualified Congress MLAs being kept out of it.

Winning the trust vote will mean a larger-than-life image for the deposed CM who already projected himself as the ‘only’ leader of the Congress in the hill state. His rivals such as Harak Singh Rawat and Vijay Bahuguna are rebel leaders who cannot vote.

“But if he loses then BJP will get a chance to justify President’s rule in the state that was imposed on March 27,” said political observer Prayag Pande.

What it means for BJP

For the BJP, Rawat’s win will be a blow to the NDA government. It will become difficult for the BJP to defend the imposition of Article 356 and a Rawat victory might also unite the Opposition at the national level.

The deposed CM made the political crisis as a battle between him and the BJP. He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah of destabilising a ‘democratically elected government’.

What is the crisis

The political crisis in the state was triggered when the nine Congress rebels supported the BJP on March 18 during the passage of an Appropriation Bill.

The governor ordered a floor test a day before the scheduled trust vote. The Centre imposed President’s rule on March 27.

Rawat challenged the President’s rule in the Uttarakhand high court, which on March 29 ordered trust vote two days later. But a division bench of the high court stayed the single bench ruling by justice UC Dhyani.

On April 21, the division bench headed by then chief justice JM Joseph revoked President’s rule restoring Rawat as CM and asking him to seek trust vote on April 29.

The next day, Centre got a stay from the Supreme Court against the HC order giving Rawat a place in the history books as being helm of a state for shortest period – less than 24 hours – in which he held two Cabinet meetings and took 11 populist decisions.

April 5: HC refuses to stay disqualification of nine rebels and posts the matter for April 23

April 21: HC revokes Prez rule after Centre fails to commit that it will not revoke its rule for a week, Centre decides to challenge the HC order in the Supreme Court. Rawat suo moto assumes CM’s office

April 22: The Supreme Court stays the HC ruling revoking Prez rule

May 6: SC orders a floor test in the state assembly on May 10

May 9: SC bars rebel MLAs from voting in the Uttarakhand floor test

May 10: Congress claims victory in Uttarakhand after a tight trust vote in the assembly; SC to declare official result on Wednesday

The law was added to the Constitution as the tenth schedule by the 52nd amendment during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure in 1985 and it aimed to check the ‘Aya Ram, Gaya Ram’ (frequent defection by legislators) phenomenon in Indian politics.

Read more about disqualification, expulsion and splits and mergers under the anti-defection law here.